Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates to a secondary or rechargeable battery, specifically to a battery with an aqueous electrolyte and at least one organic material used for an electrode.
Background
Generally, aqueous metal-ion batteries (AMIBs) represent a potential improvement in battery technology for commercial and industrial applications, particularly in vehicular designs. Prototype aqueous batteries have previously demonstrated ˜75 Wh/kg of energy density based on the weight of electrodes. However, this parameter remains below the effective specific energy densities required to meet various governmental and regulatory recommended metrics, as well as certain application-specific demands. Further, it has been demonstrated that some cathode materials employed in some non-aqueous lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are generally stable in aqueous electrolytes. Exemplary lithium-based cathode materials such as layered LiCoO2 and spinel LiMn2O4 have shown capacities approaching their theoretical values with good reversibility at high charge/discharge rates. However, the intercalation compound-based anodes have demonstrated unsatisfactory cyclability in AMIBs, including aqueous lithium ion batteries (ALIB), due to material dissolution into the bulk electrolyte and oxidation by O2 at the discharged state. Currently, creating an anode material with satisfactory cyclability for operation in high energy density batteries represents a technological hurdle to commercial implementation of AMIBs as a whole.